CHAPTER 2: THE DAUGHTER NOBODY KNEW
Panic spread through the ballroom.
People rushed toward the exits.
Nothing moved.
Phones suddenly lost signal.
The giant digital screens around the room flickered to life.
Victor's smile disappeared.
“What is this?”
I wiped the blood from my lip.
“You should sit down.”
“Who the hell are you?” he snapped.
I laughed softly.
“Interesting.”
“For three years, you've investigated every powerful family in New York…”
“And you never discovered mine.”
His face hardened.
Impossible.
Everyone in elite circles knew everyone.
Or so they believed.
Then every screen displayed a single emblem.
A silver phoenix.
The room went silent.
One billionaire dropped his glass.
“No…”
An older senator took a step backward.
“Oh my God.”
People began whispering.
“The Phoenix Group…”
“They're real?”
“The shadow investors?”
“The family that owns stakes in half the world's infrastructure?”
Victor stared at me.
“No…”
I nodded.
“My name isn't Emma Carter.”
“My real name is Eleanor Sterling.”
The room collectively gasped.
The Sterlings.
The invisible dynasty.
The family that never appeared in magazines because they didn't need publicity.
They controlled shipping routes, cybersecurity networks, international energy contracts, and private intelligence divisions.
And only one person stood above all of them.
My father.
Arthur Sterling.
The man who almost nobody had ever seen.
Victor laughed nervously.
“No. This is impossible.”
“Is it?”
I pressed another button on my phone.
The ballroom doors opened.
Thirty men and women dressed in black tactical suits entered silently.
No weapons visible.
No wasted movement.
Professionals.
Victor's confidence finally cracked.
“Who are they?”
I answered calmly.
“My father's extraction team.”
“Also the people who protect assets worth over four hundred billion dollars.”
Then I pointed directly at him.
“And right now…”
“You're considered a threat.”
For the first time that night…
May you like
Victor looked afraid.
